12-28-11: Being Transgender in Maryland

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wypr/local-wypr-998363.mp3As we remember Marylanders we lost this year, we want to include someone who wasn’t well-known to the general public until after her death. Tyra Trent, a 25-year-old transgender woman, was found murdered in February in a vacant house in northwest Baltimore. Her death is one of many acts of violence committed against members of the transgender community in Maryland — it occurred just two months before the beating of a transgender woman in a Baltimore County McDonald’s.

According to a report released in 2010 by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, transgender women are disproportionately targeted for hate violence relative to their make-up of the general population in the U. S.

Meanwhile, a bill that would have prohibited discrimination against transgender people on matters of employment and housing failed to make it through the General Assembly this past spring. New legislation is expected to be proposed this spring.

Sheilah speaks with Sandy Rawls, the president and founder of Trans-United, an organization devoted to providing help and support to the transgender community.

In this special just for the web, Sandy Rawls speaks about why trans-gender women face such violence: